PONDER THIS? A DIFFERENT, BUT INTERESTING QUESTION.

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I was trying to think of a question that could generate some conversation that's a bit different, but will make you think. I hope this does just that.

Dinosaurs, we all know they were long go a long time ago, but take a look at humans. I was wondering how dinosaurs died off, but humans didn't. Sure we're smart, but with absolutely nothing really in terms of resources, the spread of sickness and fending off other desprate humans, not to mention dinosaurs trying to eat them. How did we make it? It's interesting if you think about it, if dinosaurs died because of heat well that don't make any sense to me. They were bigger, more deadly and had higher numbers. So If humans had so many dis advantages, that makes you think. Now the meteor theory, I call bull crap. If that happened, I see no way how it didn't take all the humans as well.

There you go guys. Dumb question, maybe it is. Let's try and have some interestion replies to this.
Marrend
Guardian of the Description Thread
21781
I thought it was merely a myth that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same period? I'm pretty scatterbrained right now, so refute this at will.
Um... I'm like, 99% sure humans and dinosaurs DIDN'T exist at the same time. That's only in cartoons, man.
author=Marrend
I thought it was merely a myth that humans and dinosaurs lived at the same period? I'm pretty scatterbrained right now, so refute this at will.

As true as that may or may not be, there are lots of theories out there. Which is why I used the meteorite, famine and other examples.

Even to that extent, humans had to brave so many things back then. Hell, we have a hard enough time now let alone when tech didn't exsist. Even if only 10% were with dinosaurs, my whole statement still stands. 10% is more then 0%, that just means less that would have needed to be killed off.
Actually not all dinosaur species died out. Some evolved and adapted to the changing environment and became avian dinosaurs (birds). And yeah, humans did not exist back then. Some primates might have existed at that time, but they were not humans. They survived and evolved into other species just like the dinosaurs did, but perhaps less drastically.
I'm actually... not sure what to think of this.

I think the viewpoint Chu offered is pretty good, in any case. Devolvement could work in a logical sense.
author=ChuJooRi
Actually not all dinosaur species died out. Some evolved and adapted to the changing environment and became avian dinosaurs (birds). And yeah, humans did not exist back then. Some primates might have existed at that time, but they were not humans. They survived and evolved into other species just like the dinosaurs did, but perhaps less drastically.

Problem with having this kind of conversation is that there are so many theories out there. To be honest, my main point of this was how did humans survive the MANY MANY hazards. I used dinosaurs as an example that they are much larger and more deadly, not to mention their numbers.

EDIT: Very nice view point Chu.
This thread has really served to further question my faith in humanity. Jparker are you really born 84 and you still didn't know that there were no humans when the dinosaurs lived?
This thread only serves to remind me people really need to comprehend the difference between our common use of the word "theory" and the scientific use of the word "theory."
Someone make a game about humans trying to survive in a world of dinosaurs. Preferably a technologically advanced world where both humans and dinosaurs are using cybernetics. I'd play that.
Dinosaurs died 65 million years ago. Humans have only been around 200,000 years.

I guess we're still around because of dumb luck.
Sorry, jparker, but your question lacks details to be called interesting, let alone not making much sense.

If you want to ask a question like this and convince people to answer it properly, you need to first get things right. From the Google search I've done, dinosaurs have been estimated to be around for 160 million years (http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_long_have_dinosaurs_been_around_for?#slide=3). That's so much longer than the 200,000 years that humans have been around for like Arandomgamemaker mentioned. So jparker, your point about how humans survive the "many many hazards" becomes a little moot. Dinosaurs may be bigger than us humans, but you ought to know that, most of the time, intelligence triumphs over brute strength. And this:

but with absolutely nothing really in terms of resources, the spread of sickness and fending off other desprate humans

...Like, really, this doesn't make any sense. Where's your evidence in this? And what exactly do you mean by "but with absolutely nothing really in terms of resources"??? If you imply that to be true, then I could also say the same for dinosaurs.

Please, get your facts right, clear and concise first before you attempt to post such a question (if you want serious answers, that is).

EDIT: Before you post again on this topic, I would strongly advise you to read this up first: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur#Extinction_of_major_groups
A heads-up in this link is that dinosaurs and several other species became extinct (mass extinction) largely because of a certain sudden incident that occurred about 65 million years ago. Nobody knows and will ever know exactly what happened, though. About the meteor theory, whether you believe it or not is up to you, but at least there is evidence to it.
LockeZ
I'd really like to get rid of LockeZ. His play style is way too unpredictable. He's always like this too. If he ran a country, he'd just kill and imprison people at random until crime stopped.
5958
The entire race of dinosaurs was singlehandedly slaughtered by the Demon King, a rad dude with purple wings and a giant silver sword hailing from the Eighth Netherworld. The dinosaurs, whose seemingly pterocratic society was secretly governed behind the scenes by bracheosaur doomsday cultists, had used forbidden arcane magic to summon a massive meteor capable of wiping out all life on the planet. Most dinosaurs rejoiced at this fate, believing existance itself to be a heretical act which must be stopped.

The Demon King carved a bloody path through the jurassic armies and slew the dinoleaders, but not in time to stop the meteor. Sacrificing his own life in a bloody pact in which he transferred all his immense power through a wormhole to his past self, he was able to acquire just enough power to break the meteor into twelve pieces. Eleven of them became other planets in our solar system (a couple of which were later stolen by Space Mormons), but one piece still crashed into the Earth. It was powerful enough to kill off the remaining dinosaurs and thousands of other species on Earth, but the planet survived.

Billions of years later, the last memoirs of the Demon King were uncovered by General Robert E. Lee and the insights gained from it were integral to his victories in the American Civil War. Paramount Pictures currently holds the rights to the documents, but every scriptwriter they've hired to make a movie script out of them has been suddenly been transformed into a pillar of salt a day later for what are being called "unrelated personal reasons."
author=LockeZ
The entire race of dinosaurs was singlehandedly slaughtered by the Demon King, a rad dude with purple wings and a giant silver sword hailing from the Eighth Netherworld. The dinosaurs, whose seemingly pterocratic society was secretly governed behind the scenes by bracheosaur doomsday cultists, had used forbidden arcane magic to summon a massive meteor capable of wiping out all life on the planet. Most dinosaurs rejoiced at this fate, believing existance itself to be a heretical act which must be stopped.

The Demon King carved a bloody path through the jurassic armies and slew the dinoleaders, but not in time to stop the meteor. Sacrificing his own life in a bloody pact in which he transferred all his immense power through a wormhole to his past self, he was able to acquire just enough power to break the meteor into twelve pieces. Eleven of them became other planets in our solar system (a couple of which were later stolen by Space Mormons), but one piece still crashed into the Earth. It was powerful enough to kill off the remaining dinosaurs and thousands of other species on Earth, but the planet survived.

Billions of years later, the last memoirs of the Demon King were uncovered by General Robert E. Lee and the insights gained from it were integral to his victories in the American Civil War. Paramount Pictures currently holds the rights to the documents, but every scriptwriter they've hired to make a movie script out of them has been suddenly been transformed into a pillar of salt a day later for what are being called "unrelated personal reasons."


Corfaisus
"It's frustrating because - as much as Corf is otherwise an irredeemable person - his 2k/3 mapping is on point." ~ psy_wombats
7874
Here, educate yourself. As far as I'm concerned, climate shifts and all that jazz followed by evolution from bald creatures to hairy creatures to creatures that slowly became able to stand upright for any significant amount of time for the sake of meeting a need (likely feeding). We developed greater brain capabilities and, welp, here we are. How did we survive amongst the dinosaurs? Simple; we didn't. "We" were all lemurs at the time, so in a cosmic sort of way, this little guy is your distant cousin; much cuter than just a straight up ass-picking, finger-sniffing monkey.
Actually according to newest finding, humans already existed 400000 years ago. But yeah, that's still far away from 65 million years. =p

Basically it was like that:
1. Microorgasnisms in water
2. Jump out of water become reptiles
3. Some reptiles slowly evolve into "mammal", other reptiles start flying and slowly evolve into "birds".
4. Meteor hits earth.
5. Dust created by meteor blocks sun, planet gets cold.
6. Reptiles (Dinosaurs) aren't build to survive a cold climate and die off, but those that slowly evolved into birds and mammals (especially mammals could handle cold well), survived.
7. Further evolution of mammals for 65 million years
8. Humans!
9. In 1999, the world ends because the meteor actually contained an alien that sucked out the resources of the planet for 65 million years and then destroys it.
I think someone was watching Dinosaurs.

author=SnowOwl
This thread has really served to further question my faith in humanity. Jparker are you really born 84 and you still didn't know that there were no humans when the dinosaurs lived?

First off, no need to be a dick. If you would have read everything that I typed out. I clarified that I was simply wondering how humans survived and dinosaurs didn't. I personaly feel that they were better suited for long term survival then us.

@eplipswich: I was comparing to what we have today, hell. even a few hundred years ago we had more resources for survival.

EDIT: I do admit I should have read over what I typed before I posted it. That being said, I did clarify that I mainly was curious how humans survived all the hazards and hardships. Which I see a lot of you that replied, over looked that for the chance to attack me for lack of better terms. For one comment I made about humans and dinosaurs living together. Which I do again admit, I should have read over it before I posted it. Instead I tried to justify it and failed, but still.
First of all, dinosaurs is a whole line of different species. A better question (and factually correct) would be asking how mammals survived when the dinosaurs didn't (which is still a stupid question because it's easy to find out if you just google it).
Also, why do you find it so impossible that a massive asteroid hit earth? Smaller ones hit earth all the time but they burn up in the atmosphere. In fact, there's evidence several massive asteroids have hit earth earlier. It's not 100% sure that it was a asteroid, but it's the most likely theory.

I was not being a dick. Your lack of proper knowledge before asking stupid questions that you should have learnt in grade school just makes it seem that way to you. If anything, I was being nice and holding back.
author=Jparker1984
I was simply wondering how humans survived and dinosaurs didn't. I personaly feel that they were better suited for long term survival then us.


Dinosaurs lived for millions of years before going down. Humans haven't even done one million yet, and there are lot of reasons to believe we won't even make it to the first million.

So... where do you have proof that we're better suited for long term survival?
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